Steaks are high in meat judging
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Farmer Daniel Schuster on the SchuAm pig farm. The farm has been named a finalist in the Delicious Produce Awards
A GUEST who arrives bearing food is a fine guest. One who arrives with four pieces of rib-eye beef on the bone, doubly so. But one who arrives with a manual to accompany her steaks? A wad of A4 pages as a condiment to the beef? That’s a guest on a mission.
And the judges behind the annual Delicious Produce Awards are on a mission, of sorts. It involves cooking, eating, comparing and discussing the food products submitted for evaluation in this, Australia’s most respected awards program for growers, primary producers and value-adders.
So who decides the winners of these awards? And how? Anyone who thought it was a bunch of magazine staff chewing the fat over a bottle of wine on a Friday night is in for a surprise.
My guest is a judge. Like the other judges in her category, she is a respected chef with a reputation for understanding produce. This is someone reasonably intimidating to have round for a bite, but the rules tonight are clear: it’s a judging night. She and her husband, with whom she operates a very successful restaurant and boutique hotel, me and mine (my other half, not a husband.) Collectively, we know a bit about food. Cooking. And definitely eating. So it should be interesting, and the gift doesn’t stop giving there.
There’s a rather good liver pate (another DPA entrant) to snack on first, and a few (rather ordinary) cheeses (more entrants) to finish. And a beautiful bottle of Victorian wine, the 2011 Tournon Shays Flat Vineyard shiraz (not an entrant). Our part of the deal is crudités with bagna cauda for snacking, a leaf salad from the garden, insalata caprese with our own fantastic tomatoes and basil, fresh horseradish from the blokes down the road, and kipfler potatoes from the shop. And a really excellent bottle of Charles Melton Voices of Angels 2005 shiraz, from under the stairs.
The trusty Weber is cleaned. Thoroughly. The steaks removed from their packs, patted down with kitchen paper, prodded, pulled and poked by many hands, and already a disparity is clear: while three producers have submitted — to each of the judges, mind you, so you can imagine the logistics behind all this — steaks around the 300g mark, one has sent a monster, easily half a kilo.
Raw, it feels quite different to the others.
Two of the entries are specific about the breed of their cattle; two are not. But all furnish quite inspiring producer statements regarding their pasture care and environmental measures. It reminds me of something I read recently from the butchers Feather & Bone: “So now, eight years or so down the track, we find ourselves scratching our heads and thinking that, instead of selling meat, what we're really selling is soil — the concentrated essence of the goodness that is inherent in healthy, vibrant soil. Which is a bit peculiar for a butcher.” These steaks are a profound extension of the properties they come from. They are all from pasture-raised — that is, grass-fed — cattle.
Each gets a liberal lashing with a branded flake salt with many thousands of food miles on the clock. And that’s it. Each is grilled with a fair bit of finger prodding en route. There’s a bit of agonising about the done-ness of each. Shiraz helps with this agonising.
Each is sliced, felt, sniffed, sucked, masticated and commented upon. And each is judged, a five-point system ranging from “Obvious flaws” to “Perfect, can’t fault anything.” They are judged for presentation/raw appearance. Mouth-feel/texture. And flavour. We talk about cell structure, marbling, juiciness, residual mouth-feel, flavour. It is a thorough workover and it seems to me these awards are in good hands.
Winners of the 2014 Delicious Produce Awards are announced in June.
Source: The Australian - 5 April 2014
